of 600 teams participate with 98 percent of them coming from
out of state. Each team, Sanders has found, will bring an average
delegation of 46 people, including players, parents and coaches and
typically will occupy nine condos or other rental units. Most will
stay at the beach for seven days.
John Cain is the founder of the USFA, which is headquartered in
Panama City Beach. He started the organization in 1998 after tiring
of paying fees to other sanctioning bodies while doing almost all of
the work associated with hosting tournaments himself.
“We’re the Little League of girls’ fastpitch with 10,000 teams
participating nationwide,” Cain says. “We started out as an
organization that primarily provided equipment to girls’ teams
mandated by Title IX and have evolved from there.”
The presence of Frank Brown Park has a lot to do with the fact
that the USFA, an organization that includes Olympic softball gold
medalist Jenny Finch, remains in Panama City Beach.
Cain recalls the days when the park was home to just four
softball/baseball diamonds prior to its expansion to nine fields
in 1999.
“The quality of the facilities at Frank Brown is great, and the
location is better than that,” Cain asserts. “When you take into
account the three factors that Realtors always talk about — location,
location, location — it’s the very best. Sure, some facilities have better
turf, better sand and more shade trees, but they don’t have a white
sand beach and all that Panama City Beach has to offer a family that
wants to turn a tournament into a vacation.”
Cain is excited by park expansion plans that include eight new
diamonds. Those plans, Sanders points out, also include rectangular
fields to be reserved for sports only and a multi-purpose center
capable of handling basketball tournaments, gymnastics meets,
cheerleading competitions, concerts and more.
“Eight new fields would pretty much guarantee that the USFA
World Series would be in Panama City Beach forever,” Cain says.
“The way things are now, we turn a lot of teams down and that is
despite the fact that we also use fields at Harders Park (in north
Bay County); Oakland Terrace Park (in Panama City); and in
Lynn Haven.”
Southeastern softball/baseball hubs in addition to Panama
City Beach include Orlando and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,
but Sanders’ chief competitor may be Orange Beach/Gulf
Shores, Alabama.
“They’ve got a beach, too,” Sanders point out, “and new fields
in nearby Foley, but we’re so far ahead of them that we don’t have
anything to worry about. Our issue is capacity and dealing with that
will require more fields.”
The new fields, as envisioned, will complement existing fields
but will represent a step up. Some will feature artificial surfaces
thus requiring less maintenance and eliminating bad hops.
Like Sanders and Cain, Panama City Beach Parks and Recreation
Director Jim Ponek hopes the expansion becomes a reality. His
perfect picture includes one set of fields reserved exclusively for
softball and another set for baseball.
Existing fields, he says, are showing signs of wear due to heavy
usage and “there is only so much that you can cover up with a
coat of paint.”
Umpires will thank Ponek for providing them with a place to relax
and cool off between games. He acquired
a surplus portable classroom from Bay
District Schools and converted it to what
will be known as the Blue Lounge, “blue”
being synonymous with umps.
“People recognize that sports is in
Panama City Beach’s DNA,” Sanders
enthuses. “We’re coming to be known as a
sports capital and not just a Spring Break
capital. With improvements in air service
and more flights, we’re drawing teams
from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and the
Midwest in addition to the Southeast.”
Sanders maintains a roster of 154 sports
events that his operation either man-
ages or otherwise touches. In total, those
events, he says, account for more than
100,000 room nights and $75 million
annually in direct spending.
And, Sanders adds, “We shouldn’t
forget about jobs generation. Every 85
visitors equates to a job.”